It had been four days since Batista and Masako left Arroyo. As much as Batista wanted to conserve their money, he sprang for second-class tickets to the border. There was no way he go nine days in a standing room only third-class car. Second class cabins like this seated four with two fold-out racks for sleeping. Fellow passengers in the cabin came and went along the way, but at least until they reached Zafiro, it was just the two of them. There weren't going to be too many opportunities like this, which meant it was a fine time for Batista to change his dressings. The kind of damage he had suffered would have a way of sticking in people's minds and he didn't want people remembering him.

He grunted as started to take off his longcoat. You don't really appreciate all the muscles in the body and how they work together until you get hurt and they remind you how much use they get on a daily basis.

Masako noticed this and went over to help him get his coat off, saying, "You are so stubborn. Why do you not ask for help?"

"I didn't know you was offerin'," Batista replied. "Ow, dammit..."

Once the coat was off, he slid off the loop tied to the shotgun and went to work undoing the shoulder holsters. Not one to completely lower his guard, he set down the shotgun next to him in easy reach. He then undid the frogs on his shirt and Masako pulled it off of him. He looked down at the bandages and saw that they weren't too discolored by seepage. Too much for Masako's taste, though, apparently.

Batista was about to dispute that point when she held up a pocketknife.

"The porter let me borrow this."

Honestly, he did feel better about the prospect of her cutting off the bandages with that rather than fumbling around with a machete, but he wasn't about to give her credit for finding a solution so quickly.

"Jus' don't forget ta give it back," he said. "We'll have all sorts a' hell ta deal with if he gets it in his head that ya nicked it."

"I had no intention of keeping it," she replied, going over to him and kneeling down beside him. "Now hold still."

"Be careful now. I don't need ya puttin' any new holes in me. Ya sure ya can handle that thing?"

"I know how to use a knife."

She started with the bandages for his stomach wound. The blade of the pocketknife wasn't particularly sharp, so she had to do some sawing to cut through. As she started to peel off the bandages, it quickly became clear that they had gotten stuck to the wound.

"Ow, dammit," Batista grunted when she first started to pull on it.

"I told you you should have changed the bandages sooner," she said.

"Yeah, yeah, jus' don't yank out the damn stitches while you're pullin' on it like that."

"If you have any suggestions as to how I will do this, I would like to hear them."

Batista had to grit his teeth as she tried twisting the bandage to get it to come loose.

"It is stuck fast," she said.

"Get some damn water," Batista told her. "Pour some on an' soften it up a bit."

He meant for her to use the canteen, but she left the cabin again and a while later came back with a glass of water. He didn't even bother to reproach her for it. What was the point?

She started to pour some of the water over the part of the bandages that were stuck, careful not to use too much and make a mess of it. She let it soak in a while, then worked at it again, eventually managing to get it off.

Looking uncertainly at the wound, she asked, "Should it be so red?"

Batista looked down and saw that the wound was a little pinkish, which could mean an early sign of infection, not that there was much he could do about it if that was the case.

"Jus' gimme the salve," he said. "It'll be as good as anythin' for it."

Noting that he was keeping his right hand on the shotgun, she did not give him the tin of carbolic salve but instead dabbed some on her fingertips and spread it over the wound herself. Batista didn't fail to notice a little hesitancy as she did it. He didn't imagine she was too used to doing stuff like this.

Masako then took the spool of bandages and bound up Batista's stomach before moving up to the bandages on his chest. As with his stomach, the bandages had gotten stuck to the wound, but the same trick worked to get it off. The pock marks from the blast of rock salt were fairly shallow and he could probably ditch the bandages in two or three more days.

While she was spreading more salve on his chest, Masako asked him, "How... How do you bear it?"

Looking down at his injuries, Batista thought she was being a little too dramatic about the whole thing.

"Aw, this is nothin'," he said. "I've had a lot worse before."

Masako shook her head.

"Not just the wounds... All the killing... Always walking the line between life and death..."

So she was thinking of heavier stuff after all. It didn't change much, though.

Masako said nothing for a while and it wasn't until she was almost done with the new bandages on his chest that she spoke up again.

"You remind me of my father... When you killed those men before, your face, it was like some fierce god. I saw the same look on my father's face when he fought the assassins who had come to kill him. There were eight of them and he killed three... He would have killed them all if they had not fought like cowards."

It would figure the Celestials would entertain themselves with notions of honor and chivalry, dumb ideals that didn't last long on an actual battlefield. He meant to tread lightly on the subject of her father's death, but he wound up being honest instead.

"He was protecting me," Masako said. "Surely he knew he could not best them all. He was trying to buy time for me to run away, but I could not run..." Her eyes started tearing up and her voice cracked a little as she continued, "He died in vain... I was captured and sold and would have been abandoned to all dishonor..." She looked directly at him. "If it were not for you, I..."

Batista couldn't take those eyes of hers. There's no telling what might've happened if he didn't cut things off then and there.

Resting his hand on her shoulder, he said, "Alright, ease up, princess. That ain't gonna change nothin'. Jus' focus on doin' your bit ta stay alive till we get ta Lingmu an' maybe he won't've died in vain after all."